how does this routine look?

i appreciate everybody's help with me. im new to cutting. my diet i have down so only perfect my training. my goal is to keep my mass, just cut a bit of fat off and gain muscle(get more ripped). i do 4 workouts per muscle group, the reps are low for one workout, the rest are higher for getting ripped. i also do cardio 3 to 4 times a week at 30 min or so.

First off, your body is cut into pieces and each muscle is attached to the same body, so don't split them up into muscle groups and work your body and its natural movements and not muscle groups.

Here's a few problems I have with 1 day per week splits:

1) They do not take advantage of proper volume:frequency ratio. Performing a movement with lower volume allows more weight and faster recuperation, allowing you to perform that movement more frequently and more progression chances.

2) They cause more imbalances by unneeded isolation exercises to more muscles and usually cause the person significant shoulder pains in the future, as well as it is too easy to "skip" workouts and harder to balance routines.

3) Your endocrine system produces more anabolic hormones when the body is under the most tension - i.e. damaging your whole body instead of just a specific muscle group per day. This means that the full body routine produces more anabolic hormones in comparison.

Workout A:
**Squat: 3x5
**Bench: 3x5
**Deadlift: 1x5
**BB Row: 3x5

Workout B:
**Squat: 3x5
**Press: 3x5
**Power Clean: 5x3
**Chins: 3x5

Each muscle groups is balanced and hit adequately right there. The key is to add weight to each movement as frequently as possible and I promise you that is the best way to maintain or add muscle.

For cutting phases I normally recommend DC or HST, but it doesn't sound like you're ready for something like that yet.

Cutting is about the diet though, man. How is your diet? What cardio will you be doing?

i add weight with each set and i have tried what you said and full body workouts arent my cup of tee. i lose arm size with those lol my diet is lean and alot of it. cardio i either swim or run on the elliptical machine. and i have looked into DC training. i really dont wanna cut, just make my muscles more ripped and keep my bulkiness thats why i thought just do a clean bulk diet almost, but very very clean and lift with higher reps and cardio. maybe im wrong. all i know is yesterday i did chest and today i am extremely sore lol

sounds great. ill be sure to do that. what about my training routine weight wise? that look okay? i just hate doing full body splits cause i dont get alot of arm work or isolation exercises

Isolation exercises produce about half the mass of compounds and increase your potential for imbalance significantly. Do not isolate yet.

You work your arms with barbell rows and chinups. Don't believe me? What is the difference in barbell rowing, chinups and barbell curls? The same movement occurs - arm flexion.

The only difference is during a row and chinup you're pulling with your back muscles too, which increase hormonal response and allow for upper back development. The same bicep movement occurs - the ulna and radius is pulled close to the humerus. The same movement occurs.

With triceps, you can throw in some weighted dips or close grip bench presses, maybe skull crushers instead, but only one - not all of them. Continue isolating your muscles and I guarantee an early plateau.

What progresses faster and longer? Your barbell row weight or your barbell curl? Your barbell curl. This means once your curl plateaus and it also makes it more difficult for you to gain weight; thus, gain muscle mass. You'll also stop growing in the arms through failure to increase the overload.

Do the program as it is if you want to grow. I gave you a million reasons why a full body program is better.

i do all of those lol im not saying your wrong, just want clarity. why am i not supposed to do isolation YET? ive been lifting for about 4 years off and on, 2 years seriously. ive done 5x5 routine here and there, i mix up what workout machines i do (BB then DB) about every 2 weeks or so. i hardly ever reach a peak. what would i benefit from doing a full body vs what im doing now?

Because isolations cause imbalances if not used appropriately. You need an extension for every flexion, so for each curl you need a tricep exercise to balance it. This is going to lead to adding all kinds of exercises into your program. There are two things wrong with this:

1) It's going to leave you in the gym longer. This is going to cause a greater release of catabolic hormones and shorten the anabolic hormones release during the workout.

2) It's going to affect progression. The more exercises a program has the slower the progress will be on each exercise. With less exercises you're allowing yourself to lift heavier weights and more frequently, giving you more chances of progression and that always leads to getting bigger if your calories are in line.

You can successfully bulk and cut with the same workout as long as it's a good one. The key is changing your diet.

You want to continue to lift heavy so that your body tends to want to keep the muscle it has. Just make sure you're eating a lot of quality protein. Something that helps me is to keep my workouts very intense but short.

If you're ever looking for a supplement stack to help you out, I recommend doing a RPM/DRIVE/IGF-2 stack. This stack, coupled with effective dieting and proper exercise will help you lean out. If you're already fairly lean, you'll be blown away with how much more it leans you out. When it gets warmer and I start cutting up even more, you bet your ass I'm going to be cycling this stack all summer long!

phase 2 (second week and third week)
keep trainning the same, up the protien and cut down the fat a little bit, start to cut out the simple carbs a little
4-5 sessions of cardio 30-40 min

phase 3 (fourth week and fifth week)
keep trainning the same, up the protien even more, get almost no fat in the diet besides good fats. only consume good carbs, still alot of good carbs, up the fiber significantly
do carido 5-6 times a week 30-40 min slow pased

phase 4 (six ans seventh week)
keep trainning the same, up the fiber even more, drink even more water
add a fe morning sessions of cardio, now 8-9 times a week

phase 5 (eight week)
train the same but add some detail work, balance the diet out for maintanence, enjoy the new body.

this all depends on how much weight you have to loose and theres so many factors so this specifically probablly wont work for you but something similar will

the point of the phases is to slowly get your body used to differecne in diet and exercise. when people just jump straight into less cals and more cario they loose so much they didnt need to loose. you dont want to loose what you worked hard for so go in phases and just dont jump into such a strict diet with mad carido

ya i understand that i just dont wanna lose arm size. when i didnt used 2 do arms, my arms grew very very slowly. then i did this kind of routine and they exploded

From my experience: cycling direct arm work has been the best for breaking arm plateaus. Once you stop isolating arms (depending on your experience level) your arms might shrink, but insignificantly. However, once you start training them again afterwards they'll explode.